Page 47 - Issue 29 - VE Magazine

60s America informs his wardrobe and choice of music, his everyday car is a rare 1964 Pontiac Grand Prix, and he has built his own business specialising in restoring and dealing in cars from this period. I went to meet him and talk classic wheels and vintage ethos.
Hi Victor, your car looks fantastic, what is it about an older American style that appeals to you?
Well I got into classic cars when I was young because my mother owned a ’64 Jaguar MK2. But I fell in love with the American car from watching VHS films: The Blues Brothers, Two-Lane Blacktop, Vanishing Point, the original Gone In 60 Seconds, Bullitt, Mad Max, American Graffiti, Dirty Mary Crazy Larry...
www.vintagexplorer.co.uk
Without using too much jargon, can you highlight a few of your Pontiac’s unique features?
Foremost are the eight lug alloy wheels with the aluminium finned brake drums. Another feature, which isn’t exactly unique but rare for any car of its age, is that it has its original matching numbers, engine and gearbox plus factory air conditioning.
Do you think it’s important that life is breathed into old objects so they go on living, rather than being preserved?
Yes I do. I’m 24 and one of the few people of my generation who refused to have a mobile phone. I finally bought one two years ago. And... how should I put this? I didn’t get rid
of my VHS recorder and move on to DVD until six years ago! People focus so much on new tech now days, unfortunately old ways are slipping away. It’s like I remember, a few years ago, getting my younger cousin to watch Some Like It Hot and she refused
– because it was black and white! That is a tragedy with my generation and younger!
You are relatively young to have an appreciation of classic cars, how did this begin? 􏰀 Besides my mum’s Jaguar, hearing stories
about my grandfather Joseph Wild. He was
a navy man and a mechanic, fixing and
fabricating parts for Boris Karloff’s Rolls-
Royce back in the day.
ve / August-September 2016 / 47